Eclectic Wargames

I have been wargaming for many years, part of the Featherstone generation, and I have played almost every period and scale that you can imagine. I started with Airfix, as so many did, and WW2 is still the period I return to most often. But I have played Ancients, Colonials, Naval (sail and steam), Western and Sci Fi, almost anything you could think of, mostly solo. I am also an inveterate collector of rule sets, most of which never actually get played.

Thursday, 17 August 2017

Painted some more of the Baccus ACW, this time the Union Zouaves. I wanted to make them look a little different from their Confederate equivalents, though they could quite justifiably look very similar. Anyway for these I chose to model them on the New York Fire Zouaves, with red shirts and dark blue trousers. For the base I used AK Terrains acrylic textured paint, an alternative to Basetex. It is slightly easier to apply and "paint", though it seems to be death to brushes. But the colour choice is odd - there is a very deep chocolate brown, which I used on the Confederate Zouaves, and a Dry Earth which I used here. That, however is a very pale sand colour - they don't seem to do a mid-earth tone. I brushed it over with an earth shade and it looks fine flocked, but still rather arid. It would be nice to have one with a more temperate feel.

Wednesday, 9 August 2017

A new supplier of 6mm buildings, Battlescale Miniatures. This is run by a guy called Steve Clay, who is on several Facebook groups, and is based close to Stoke. I thought I would try some of his stuff for my ACW project, and as a change from Leven, and I must say it is pretty nice. The resin is quite shiny, and very hard, with no apparent bubbles or flaws. The surface detail is good, and I painted them up quite quickly, mostly layers of drybrushing, with a few little details to finish them off. The models I got are the Dunker Church, which was on the battlefield of Antietam, a Farmhouse with Annexe, a Gambrel Barn and a Timber Clad Homestead. Unlike soldiers, where uniformity is expected, buildings need as much variety as possible, so a good new source of supply is always welcome.

Friday, 4 August 2017

Continuing with the ACW painting, the latest batch are a regiment of Confederate Zouaves. Baccus figures as always, and very nice too. These really are a bizarre set of troops, if someone had made them up you would not have believed them, and the Union side also had its own versions, which I will be painting next. Curious as they are, they do add a bit of colour and variety to what might otherwise be a rather dull battlefield of dark blue and grey.

Thursday, 27 July 2017

I painted a number of Leven buildings which I have bought from two or three shows. Mostly rural buildings suitable for the ACW theme I am working on, but also including a lighthouse which I bought for no better reason than I liked the look of it.

Sunday, 25 June 2017

The next stage of the incremental painting of my ACW 6mm troops was another Union Regiment, and the Union Command figures. Since I painted my first Union unit I have acquired some of the Foundry three-shade system colours for this period - specifically Union Blue and Union Trouser Blue. I used these on all the figures here - the command elements are mounted so I can use a bit more variation in the horses.

Tuesday, 6 June 2017

This is the Baccus Confederate Command group - 12 figures on four sprues, three of them carrying flags (guidons). As always they painted up nicely, and indeed having photographed them, I have noticed several bits where I can add further detail, though it probably won't be noticeable in normal use. I put them on various sized coins, in groups of one, two or three figures, which I will use to denote different levels of command. The flags are by Baccus - State flags of Florida, Louisiana and Mississippi.

Sunday, 7 May 2017

After Blenheim at the Wargames Holiday Centre I had a taste for black powder (the period and the rule set) and I wanted to get into them in some way. 6mm, naturally, but what conflict exactly? I have always had a bit of a yearning for the classic 18th Century Imaginations campaign, and I am also interested in finding out more about the AWI. However I feel it helps to have a basic knowledge of the period and combatants when starting something new - so you instinctively understand the difference between a Guard and a Grenadier, for example. That way you don't have to go back to check every detail before making a move. I have a reasonable grasp of the combatants and narrative of the American Civil War, so I decided to start there.

When I was down at Salute I picked up two Baccus starter armies, one Confederate and one Union Eastern Theatre. I also got the Black Powder supplement for the conflict, Glory Hallelujiah! One question I wanted to decide was the basing structure, and so I started out by painting and basing a single infantry unit for each side. The Baccus basic infantry element is four figures lined up side by side, 20mm wide. I decided that a standard unit (a regiment) would be two bases, each 40mm wide by 15mm deep. Each base would have two ranks, each of eight figures, two elements. On one of the bases, one of the front elements would be a command element, which Baccus supply as part of the unit, with flags, drums and an officer. I will also have skirmish screens - each one will be 40mm x 20mm, with four skirmishing figures per base. So a regiment will be 32 figures, 40 with a skirmish screen out.

I started with a Union regiment, and I was pleased with the results. Next I will do a Confederate equivalent, then try some other units - command, artillery, cavalry and Zouaves.